Nintendo Dream interview: early development history and more

[The DanMan]

http://nintendoeverything.com/fire-emblem-warriors-devs-on-how-the-game-came-to-be-choosing-characters-games-original-characters-more/

(EDIT: Great, the formatting got borked.)
The concept was proposed during HWL's development, though development in earnest didn't begin until after its completion (which seems to confirm it's the same team). IS is also really involved in character dialogue (insert joke here). 

Also, this quote:

Quote

Hayashi: Because we want to make it a Warriors game where you can properly use the distinguished classes. Even so, if we were to put in protagonists from every series, most of them would end up becoming Lords. In that case everyone would have swords, so there wouldn’t be any strategic systems with switching characters or even anything else. So just like how we chose three 3D titles in Hyrule Warriors, we’re doing the same selection method too this time. That means we want to put an emphasis on the gameplay of switching classes, so we went on with narrowing down the titles… However, just like the fans, even a number of our own staffs cannot fathom it.

Usuda: Exactly so.

-Everybody laughs-

Hayashi: Some staff even got into quarrels with us to the point that they were saying ‘I’m going to leave this project’. They said bizarre things like ‘Hayashi doesn’t know anything about Fire Emblem!’. Even I had to make this bitter decision, because if we didn’t narrow them down it wouldn’t develop into [proper] gameplay! (laughs)

Anyways, they went with F!Corrin to have another female be front and center (plus popularity). And speaking of popularity:

Quote

Hayashi: We had a really hectic time in choosing them. At first our company considered from the weapons first and sent the proposal, but Intelligent Systems pointed us to the results of popularity polls, and Nintendo also told us ‘please add this character’, so we adjusted it little by little.

I think that heavily implies what happened with Lucina.

They also discussed creating the twins; originally they wanted to create a customizable avatar but it would've been too much work to render them in cutscenes. As for Rowan and Lianna, they originally wanted them to look like other lords in the series, but realized there would be too much blue. So they decided to theme them more around white and gold with blue accents. And, well... 

Quote

Usuda: When we showed them to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems, proclaiming ‘These are our original characters for this time, Shion/Rowan and Lianna!’, they said ‘Actually we’re creating sibling characters like these…’ and showed the [then] unannounced characters. Then Heroes also had gold and white, and especially Sharon/Sharena and Lianna were way too similar to each other, including their background settings…

Hayashi: They told us ‘Hayashi-san, your team also did it with gold, huh!?’ (laughs). That’s why we revisited the designs, and we made some adjustments to them like changing their hair color.

I'd love to see their original hair colors.

Not much else besides them mentioning IS helped them with the story (so if you needed confirmation that it would be flaming garbage...) and to "please look forward to it".

Probably some things I missed, but hope I covered the basics.

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by The DanMan

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Ha, I had a feeling there was some conflict when the Heroes Team and Warriors team showed off their OC siblings with gold armor.

It's a shame that the Warriors team was more focused on gameplay variety with its character selection than IS themselves or Nintendo. I won't complain about the extra swordies in the base game, but I do lament the decreased likelihood of seeing swordies from other games yet to be represented.

Where the white lances at?

[Jedi]

I figured IS & Ninty were being strict with choices.

[Iridium]

inb4 another thread devolves into ike and lyn not getting their usual level of pandering

45 minutes ago, Gustavos said:

Where the white lances at?

In Archanea, I assume. Caeda and Camus are both pretty obvious inclusions. Could see Hardin/Draug/Jagen happening as well, but they're less likely.

As for other games, Azura is probably a lock but there's not much else of value. I imagine at least one DLC pack will be Sacred Stones since they hate acknowledging that that game exists besides obligatory mentions of Ephraim and Eirika, so getting them out of the way means they don't need to do much for that game.

[Jedi]

5 minutes ago, Iridium said:

inb4 another thread devolves into ike and lyn not getting their usual level of pandering.

Please no hahaha, I see it enough on Youtube.

[Truthblade]

Don't know why, but for some reason I find the fact that the three-game limit controversy extended to the staff  rather amusing. XD

[Jedi]

Another note on the character amount 

D: Will the appearing characters be equally numbered from each series?

Usuda: They won’t be exactly equal. In exchange for that, the total number of characters is a lot for the first title in a collaborative Warriors game.

Hayashi: Other collaboration Warriors including Hyrule Warriors at first only had around eight to fifteen characters, but this time it will exceed them in a large scale. They’re being physically added so it’s getting hectic, but we feel we must pour our full effort here. Even so, the fans will still end up thinking it’s not enough. So although we do feel sorry about that, we’re doing our utmost to our limits.

[Anacybele]

That popularity comment has to mean Ike is in! He's been a poll winner/super popular character for a good while! (talking more about Famitsu and such, not Heroes). This helps the chances for some others who ranked high in the Heroes poll too for DLC (since that poll came sorta late).

Interesting interview overall though! Funny how the twins initially ended up being so much like Sharena and Alfonse. :P But I'm not exactly surprised here either. Lords these days aren't really that original in general (Corrin aside, and that's really only because of the white hair and dragon form).

One comment really bothered me though.

"A Fire Emblem without Marth is not a Fire Emblem at all."

Then I guess most of the series isn't Fire Emblem. :/ Not that Marth shouldn't be in FE Warriors, but it would've made a lot more sense to say a Fire Emblem CROSSOVER is not a Fire Emblem CROSSOVER without Marth (spinoff also works). That I agree with. It feels odd to not have Ike in such a game either because of Smash and Codename Steam and such at this point, which is another reason I feel he is all but confirmed now.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Anacybele

[Arthur97]

Assuming Lucina  was a request, it's kind of a jerk move to make a character specifically requested by the company letting you use it's characters a minimal effort character.

[Truthblade]

On another note, its really starting to sound like it is only those three games now. Not that I really care anymore. What I found most interesting was how it seems Awakening's inclusion was not much for its popularity but its nature. In fact, it seems that none of them were chosen on their popularity alone.

[Blademaster!]

One of the comments about how they really wanted to recreate certain famous scenes from the series really makes me think that Wyrs is going to be in the game.

[Hardin]

33 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

That popularity comment has to mean Ike is in! He's been a poll winner/super popular character for a good while! (talking more about Famitsu and such, not Heroes). This helps the chances for some others who ranked high in the Heroes poll too for DLC (since that poll came sorta late).

Please don't look at this as a confirmation of Ike. Nintendo and IS have done their own character polls for the cast of Awakening and Fates, from context that's clearly what they're referring to. 

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Hardin said:

Please don't look at this as a confirmation of Ike. Nintendo and IS have done their own character polls for the cast of Awakening and Fates, from context that's clearly what they're referring to. 

There's nothing that says those were the only polls they looked at or were talking about.

Also, let's try not to start an argument here. Can I just look at it the way I want to? If Ike's actually excluded, that'll be pretty terrible, but for now, I feel like this means his chances of being in are high.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Anacybele

[shadowofchaos]

45 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

That popularity comment has to mean Ike is in!

 

8 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

There's nothing that says those were the only polls they looked at or were talking about.

Can I just look at it the way I want to? If Ike's actually excluded, that'll be pretty terrible, but for now, I feel like this means his chances of being in are high.

Your statement in the first post and the statement in your second is vastly different.

"Also, let's try not to start an argument here. Can I just look at it the way I want to?" sounds like you're trying to make yourself look like Hardin was trying to start something, when in fact you sounded like you were jumping the gun when grasping at straws.

Edited July 15, 2017 by shadowofchaos

[Anacybele]

3 minutes ago, shadowofchaos said:

Your statement in the first post and the statement in your second is vastly different.

"Also, let's try not to start an argument here. Can I just look at it the way I want to?" sounds like you're trying to make yourself look like Hardin was trying to start something, when in fact you sounded like you were jumping the gun when grasping at straws.

Uh... Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about. And I don't really care to know. I'd rather not derail the thread.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Anacybele

[Hardin]

That's true Ana, but they have kept repeating that the roster is being determined from three games. Until they show off a playable character from a game outside of those three titles, we all need to take it as the truth. I don't want to September 28 to come by, and have people feeling like they were cheated because they expected something they were blatantly told was not happening. 

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Hardin said:

That's true Ana, but they have kept repeating that the roster is being determined from three games. Until they show off a playable character from a game outside of those three titles, we all need to take it as the truth. I don't want to September 28 to come by, and have people feeling like they were cheated because they expected something they were blatantly told was not happening. 

They said the game would GENERALLY be Awakening, Fates, and Archanea. That's not the same as ONLY being those three. They never actually said NO characters from other games would never appear.

And we've only gotten one new character reveal trailer so far, they're not done showing us who's in yet. And they may not even reveal the whole roster before release.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Anacybele

[shadowofchaos]

The thing you never notice yourself is that you tend to get into arguments with others (main example with the smash 4 thread) regarding character speculation when you keep painting people as killjoys or trying to start something for providing likely scenarios for characters you like not making it in. Especially when speculating on the small possibilities for them.

Yet you tend to argue that when it's characters you don't care about when others speculate the same way... You always tend to overstate each reason why it won't happen.

This has been going on for years.

That behavior is contradictory.

Hardin is just being realistic.

Edited July 15, 2017 by shadowofchaos

[Truthblade]

18 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

They said the game would GENERALLY be Awakening, Fates, and Archanea. That's not the same as ONLY being those three. They never actually said NO characters from other games would never appear.

And we've only gotten one new character reveal trailer so far, they're not done showing us who's in yet. And they may not even reveal the whole roster before release.

It is more than likely that "generally" might have been referring to the three ocs. Assuming that is what they said, as it could have been translated as either "mostly" or "only". The wording they also used in this article also makes it seems like the latter was indeed the correct translation.

[Anacybele]

Just now, Truthblade said:

It is more than likely that "generally" might have been referring to the three ocs. Assuming that is what they said, as it could have been translated as either "mostly" or "only". The wording they also used in this article also makes it seems like the latter was indeed the correct translation.

Might've been, yes. But not definitely at this point. We won't know for sure until the game comes out. And there's still DLC too. There's not much DLC could be besides other games in the series.

Still think excluding extremely popular characters like Ike, Lyn, Roy, Hector, and Ephraim completely would be a poor decision too though.

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, there's always this...

Quote

Hayashi: If this game is well-received, we may be able to make a sequel (laughs). That’s why this time we’d like to narrow it down.

-Everybody laughs-

ND: As a result, right now there are three titles.

But well, there's always the DLC route for characters outside the three settings if doesn't become a sub-series.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Acacia Sgt

[Hardin]

I have to be honest. If we get DLC, I hope they don't stack it full of lords. Either select characters who can bring something unique like Skrimir or Jaffar, or just focus on additional characters from the three games already featured. Lords will trickle in with every new game, so let other characters have the DLC spots. 

[Anacybele]

25 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, there's always this...

But well, there's always the DLC route for characters outside the three settings if doesn't become a sub-series.

I saw that. But a sequel isn't definite at this point. FE Warriors has to be received well enough and Koei has to then decide to make the sequel at all. So for right now, we can only hope we get some lords and characters from other games through DLC.

[The DanMan]

1 hour ago, Blademaster! said:

One of the comments about how they really wanted to recreate certain famous scenes from the series really makes me think that Wyrs is going to be in the game.

Probably more stuff like Ryoma's officer intro mirroring his combat intro in Conquest 25.

1 hour ago, Arthur97 said:

Assuming Lucina  was a request, it's kind of a jerk move to make a character specifically requested by the company letting you use it's characters a minimal effort character.

What Jedi quoted seems to suggest it's coming down to the line in some ways. I could easily imagine an exchange going like:
"We need to include Lucina in the game."
"But what can we do to differentiate her?"
"I dunno know, let's focus on these other characters that we do know what to do with."
*later*
"So, Lucina..."

The fact that she's nowhere on the cover or advertising but was confirmed in the second/third batch of character reveals also suggests she was a late addition.

@Anacybele They likely mean individual game popularity polls. The interview recounts events seemingly chronologically, and this comes up after the games were locked in.
I'd suggest it's more indicative of characters from Awakening/Fates (since there was no SD/NME character polls to my knowledge) who were assumed shoe-ins due to popularity being pushed in due to popularity, potentially at the expense of more imaginative/varied choices. 

Edited July 15, 2017 by The DanMan

[Jedi]

They might go off the Heroes poll for Shadow Dragon 

https://kantopia.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/fe111-and-fe312-archanea-games-choose-your-legends-poll-results-analysis/

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